-- Not too long ago, Lovie Smith seemed primed to get punted right out of Chicago. Now, the odds are shrinking.

The Bears are tied with Green Bay for the NFC North lead at 7-3 after winning three straight. The coach's position is sure looking a lot more secure.

Smith got a strong endorsement from G.M. Jerry Angelo on Thursday before the Bears crushed the injury-ravaged Dolphins 16-0 for their third straight win. With six games left, they've already matched their victory total in two of the last three seasons and are challenging for their first playoff appearance since the 2006 Super Bowl run.

-- Panthers coach John Fox says he hopes rookie QB Jimmy Clausen is able to start Sunday at Cleveland, but that decision is out of his hands. Clausen, who missed last week's game with a concussion, still must clear the league-mandated exams by team doctors and independent doctors to be eligible.

"If he's cleared, that's probably more than likely," Fox said of starting Clausen. "If he can stay cleared."

If Clausen is not cleared, Fox again will have to choose between Brian St. Pierre, who just joined the team 10 days ago, or rookie sixth-round pick Tony Pike.

-- What's different about the 2010 Eagles who are 7-3 and the 2009 Eagles who went 11-5? Well, obviously, Michael Vick is the QB instead of Donovan McNabb. This week, G Todd Herremans was asked to compare the two.

"Mike seems a little more determined when he's in the huddle," Herremans told WPEN-FM. "I guess determined is a good word for it because I would say both of them are confident when they are in the huddle.

"Donovan would always have that relaxed, kind of lackadaisical feel to him where he tried to keep a cool head the whole time. He always thought if he stayed relaxed and didn't act like anything was bothering him that he felt like that was the best way to carry out the game. Mike comes in the huddle and he has a look of sheer determination on his face to where he's gonna get it done.

"Mike's attitude, whether it's how he carries himself, his determination or whatever, it's very contagious to the rest of the players on the field. I think people have been able to see that when he's out there with us, we're a totally different team. Let alone his ability but the the others players on the team, it seems they step their play up when Mike's on the field."

-- Wade Phillips, who hadn't talked publicly since being fired two weeks ago by the Cowboys, defended his record in a radio interview this week and says he realizes he probably won't get a fourth shot to be a head coach. And he's OK being a coordinator going forward.

"The perception is once you're fired that you're not a very good head coach," Phillips told WXTG-FM. "It happened to me in Buffalo. We were 29-19 in Buffalo. Once I was fired there I couldn't get a head-coaching job because they thought, you know, I wasn't a good enough coach. They didn't look at my record, they just said, 'Oh, gosh, he's fired, so we gotta get somebody else.'

"It took me a long time to get another head-coaching job. You know, we went 34-22, which is pretty good. I went out as the same winning percentage of Tom Landry, so I don't feel bad about my head-coaching career. I think they're gonna look at me more as a coordinator, and that's fine with me. I just wanna coach."

-- Now that Bears coaches have left Israel Idonije at end and no longer are bouncing him along all four line spots, he is having a breakout season at age 30. Idonije has a team-high six sacks, four tipped passes and 10.5 QB knockdowns. Perhaps the biggest factor is the presence of Pro Bowl DE Julius Peppers on the opposite side, drawing attention and allowing Idonije to face one-on-one blocking.

-- The injury-ravaged Giants signed ex-Bucs WR Michael Clayton on Tuesday. New York lost star WR Steve Smith to a partial tear in his pectoral muscle Nov. 11 and backup Ramses Barden to a broken ankle three days later. Leading WR Hakeem Nicks is going to be sidelined about three weeks after needing a surgical procedure Monday to relieve pressure in his right leg. Clayton has been playing for Omaha in the United Football League. He had 16 catches in 13 games with the Bucs last season.

-- Rams rookie LT Rodger Saffold, who is battling ankle and shoulder problems, is questionable for Sunday's game at Denver after MRI tests came back negative on both injuries.

"They thought initially it was a rotator cuff injury," Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "He felt something pop, and then it was sore, certainly lost a little bit of strength."

-- Veteran WR Kevin Curtis had hoped to sign with a team this week and make his '10 debut in Week 12, but he had to postpone his comeback after needing an emergency root canal, according to ProFootballTalk.com. Curtis, 32, hasn't played since early last season because of a knee injury and a bout with testicular cancer. He already has worked out for the Lions, Giants and Seahawks and hopes to find a new home next week.

-- Cowboys CB Bryan McCann wasn't invited to the NFL's pre-draft combine and wasn't drafted. The Cowboys had him all preseason, then cut him. The Ravens picked him up, made him inactive for the opener, then sent him on his way. At the start of November, he hadn't played in an NFL game.

-- Good thing McCann remained confident. Because now the rookie cornerback has a nifty slice of NFL history, back-to-back NFC player of the week awards and is a big part of the Cowboys' surge under interim coach Jason Garrett. McCann returned an interception 101 yards for a touchdown two weeks ago and followed it up by grabbing a swatted punt and returning it 97 yards for another touchdown this past weekend. He's the first rookie ever to have touchdowns of at least 97 yards in consecutive games. According to STATS LLC, he's only the second player to do it since 1950, joining Tony Horne of the Rams in 1999.

-- Getting whipped by the Falcons last week and facing a tough stretch has not diminished Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo's optimistic outlook. Being a member of the weakest division in the NFL can have that effect. At 4-6, the Rams are only a game out of first place, and everyone else in the NFC West also lost Sunday. So even though their four-game home winning streak is history and they're 0-3 on the road and set to be the visiting team the next three weeks, nothing changes.

"We're still in the thick of it, and that's the way we're going to look at it," Spagnuolo said. "We're going to focus on the prize we set out to accomplish at the beginning of the year, the NFC West."

-- The Redskins signed CB/S Macho Harris on Tuesday to bolster their injury-depleted secondary. Harris, a 2009 fifth-round pick of the Eagles, has struggled to find a spot on defense, bouncing between cornerback and safety and was waived in preseason.

-- The Lions released linebacker Caleb Campbell and signed guard Donald Thomas.

Campbell says he will be re-signed to the practice squad on Wednesday.

He was on the active roster in Sunday's loss to the Dallas Cowboys. Campbell earned a spot on Detroit's practice squad this season, playing football for the first time since the 2007 Army-Navy game.

Detroit drafted Campbell in 2008 after the Army gave him its OK. But the Army later told Campbell he would be required to serve at least two years on active duty before he could apply to be released.

Thomas was among the Miami Dolphins' final cuts in September. Thomas was a starter for the Dolphins last season after they drafted him in the sixth round of the 2008 draft.

-- The Saints on Tuesday signed rookie Justin Drescher as their third long snapper this season. The addition of Drescher means that the long snapper, holder and kicker on Saints field goals all went to the same high school in the Dallas area. Like Drescher, K Garrett Hartley and holder/backup QB Chase Daniel attended Southlake Carroll.